Electrical resistance measurement



Nov. 21, 1950 s. M. MARCO ET AL ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE MEASUREMENT Filed March 21, 1947 AMPLlFIEL Day/Ls INVENTORS w F d M W W a w J F 2 j M e/b A.

Patented Nov. 21, 1950 ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE MEASUREMENT Salvatore M. Marco and Wells L. Davis, Columbus, Ohio, assignors to Toledo Scale Company, Toledo, Ohio, a corporation oi. New Jersey Application March 21, 1947, Serial No. 736,144

1 Claim.

apparatus for increasing the apparent sensitivity of an electrical resistance measurement without increasing the power input into the circuit.

Other objects and advantages are apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the accompanying drawing.

According to the invention the sensitivity of an electrical bridge circuit or resistance measuring circuit may be increased by energizing the circuit by means of an alternating current voltage having a high ratio of peak to effective, 1. e. root mean square, value and of measuring the output voltage of the circuit by means of a vacuum tube voltmeter or similar device that is sensitive to and reads the peak value of the alternating current voltage.

The invention further contemplates the use of a saturable core transformer for obtaining a voltage that has a high ratio of peak to eifective value.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing,

In the drawing:

Figure I is a schematic diagram of an electrical bridge circuit connected according to the invention.

Figure 11 is a schematic diagram of a vacuum tube voltmeter that is suitable for use for detecting bridge unbalance.

The specific figures and the accompanying description are intended merely to illustrate the invention but not to impose limitations on the claims.

According the invention an electrical bridge circuit comprising resistors I, 2, 3 and 4 of limited power dissipating capacity is energized from a secondary winding 5 of a saturable core or peaking transformer 6 that has a primary winding I connected through leads 8 to a source of alternating current power. The core of the transformer 6 includes a first leg 9 on which the primary winding is wound and a center leg it that completes a magnetic circuit for a primary winding with the exception of an air gap ll between the end of the center leg i0 and one of the end members of the transformer core. The secondary winding 5 is wound on another leg i2 of the transformer 6 which other leg has small cross sectional area and is made of a material having great permeability so that it is easily saturated with magnetic flux.

When such a transformer is energized with alternating current and the magnetic flux density is low, as when the current is passing through zero, the magnetic flux from the core 9 also passes through the high permeability core leg I2 and the change in this flux generates a voltage in the secondary winding 5. If the flux density increases because of an increased current in the primary winding 1, the high permeability leg l2 of the transformer saturates so that little additional flux can pass through it and the remaining flux then is forced through the center leg i0 and across the air ga ll. Under this saturated condition there is very little change in flux in the high permeability leg i2 and, consequently, verylittle voltage generated in the secondary winding 5. The output of the saturable core transformer 6 therefore consists of a series of voltage impulses which impulses are produced when the flux in the leg 9 passes through zero. The unbalance voltage from the bridge circuit that appears between leads l3 and it consists of a series of pulses, the amplitudes of which are proportional to the unbalance existing in the bridge circuit. These impulses are amplified and rectified by an amplifier t5, the output of which is applied to an indicating meter [6.

Figure II is a schematic wiring diagram of the amplifier [5. The leads l3 and H from the bridge circuit are connected to grids i1 and i8 of a pair of amplifier tubes I9 and 20. Cathodes 2| and 22 of the amplifier tubes are connected together and are connected through a common cathode resistor 23 to ground. Screen grids 24 and 25 of the amplifier tubes are connected together and are connected to a common screen resistor 26 to a positive high voltage lead 21. Current also flows from the high voltage lead 21 through plate resistors 28 and 29 to plates 30 and 3! of the amplifier tubes l9 and 20 respectively.

The use of a common cathode resistoranda common screen resistor serves to reduce the sensitivity of the amplifier to changes in supply voltage without decreasing the sensitivity of the amplifier to the voltages obtained from the unbalance voltage of the bridge. The output of the amplifier tubes l9 and 2|! is transmitted through condensers 32 and 33 to plates 34 and 35 of a rectifier tube 36. The plates 34 and 35 are also connected to ground through high resistances 31 and 38. Amplifier output voltages are applied to the plates 34 and 35 which on the positive half cycles pass current to a cathode 39 of the rectifier tube 35 to charge a condenser 40 to a potential nearly equal to the peak potential of the amplified signal. The potential on the condenser 40 is transmitted to a grid 4i of an amplifier tube 42, the plate 43 of which is connected to the high voltage lead 21. The cathode 44 of the tube 42 is connected through a resistor 45 and the meter ii to ground. A high resistance 46 connected in parallel with the rectifier condenser 40 serves to slowly discharge the condenser 40 and thereby permit the meter to follow a decrease in input signal.

If one stage of amplification is insuificient to give the desired sensitivity, morestages may be connected in cascade to increase the available signal to a level suiiiciently high to energize the indicating meter.

- Power for the high voltage lead 21 is secured from a rectifier and filter that includes a power transformer 41 the primary 48 of which is energized from an alternating current source of power and the secondaries 49, 50 and i of which serve as rectifier filament supply, rectifier plate supply and amplifier filament supply. The secondary winding 49 is connected to a filament 52 of a rectifier tube 53 while the high voltage winding 50 has its center tap grounded and its ends connected to plates 54 of the rectifier tube 53. One side of the filament 52 of the rectifier tube is connected through a resistance-capacitance filter 55 to the lead 21.

The proportional increase in sensitivity that may be obtained without increasing the heat input, i. e., the power input, to a resistance bridge is determined by the ratio of the peak value of the voltage to the efiective or root mean square voltage. The meter defiection is proportional to the peak voltage while the heat input to the bridge is proportional to the effective value of the voltage. For a commercial sine wave voltage, the ratio of the peak value to the effective value is very nearly 1.4 to 1. By using a saturable core transformer the ratio of peak to eiiective voltage may be greatly increased.

The saturable core transformer 6 is preferred as a source of voltage having a high ratio of peak to efiective voltage and is intended to be typical of various generators that may be used to secure such a voltage.

Other modifications ma be made in the structure shown and still obtain the advantages of exciting an electrical bridge with a voltage having a high ratio of peak to effective values.

Having described the invention, we claim:

In an electrical measuring circuit employing a Wheatstone bridge of limited power dissipating capacity, a saturable core transformer having its secondary connected to one diagonal of the bridge, an amplifier connected to the other of the diagonal of the bridge, a rectifier connected to the output side of th amplifier, and a vacuum tube voltmeter operatively connected 'to the rectifier to indicate the voltage delivered by the rectifier.

SALVATORE M. MARCO. WELIS L. DAVIS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Num er Name Date 1,665,397 Wunsch Apr. 10, 1928 2,037,799 Koch Apr. 21, 1936 2,350,545 Bradford June 6, 1944 2,379,462 Spencer July 3, 1945 2,395,881 Klemperer Mar. 5, 1946 2,401,424 Hershberger June 4, 1946 2,466,746 Shive Apr. 12, 1949 2,467,856 Rich Apr. 19, 1949 

